


Searching High and Low

by Talyesin



Series: Aftermath on Finite Earths [25]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 13:31:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15510939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talyesin/pseuds/Talyesin





	Searching High and Low

Earth-One  
Gotham City

 

In Gotham Harbour, the Statue of Justice stood a lonely blindfolded vigil. The joke which had permeated the underclass of superstitious cowardly criminals for decades was that she was blindfolded, and so in Gotham crime went unseen, injustice unpunished. Of course, that was before The Bat had brought hard swift justice to the mean streets of the city. Still, the image of unseeing Justice held firm in the hearts and minds of the populace, long accustomed to municipal corruption and constabulary incompetence.

At present, the much-maligned madam still bore the scars and subsequent scaffolding of Two-Face’s latest attempt to disfigure her. Through the scaffolding, however, ran a red-and-black cable of unusual thickness and strange consistency. At the end of the cable was a human head, red of hair and inquisitive of expression.

“Ralph?” the earpiece the man wore said directly into his ear.

“Not the best time, Sue,” Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man, replied. “How are the twins?”

“Bouncing all over the living room,” Sue Dibny, his wife, said with just the slightest hint of amused exasperation in her otherwise calm voice. “Literally. Nicky! Nora! Quit it right now!”

“Tell them no more Gingold if they don’t cut it out,” Ralph said as he stretched his neck in through Lady Justice’s left ear and out her right.

“I will,” Sue answered. “Where are you?”

“Lady Justice.”

“She’s not Joker’s style.”

“Have to check them all, Sue.”

“Still…”

“Not that I mind, love of my life, but was there a reason you called?”

“Oh! Yes, pick up some milk on your way home.”

“We’re out of milk again? How can we be out of milk?”

“Your children are part calf.”

“How is it when they’re being a pain, they’re my kids, but when they’re good as gold, they’re yours?”

“You really want an answer to that?”

“No, skip it. Milk, gotcha.” Just to be sure, Ralph stretched one eye out of its socket and one ear – the ear without the communicator earpiece - away from his head, sending both down a ventilator shaft. When they reached the sub-basement thirty storeys below, having seen nothing and heard nothing, Ralph retracted them.

A coded beep alerted him of an incoming priority League communication. “Sorry Sue, gotta go. Love to the kids.”

“Be careful, Ralph!”

Ralph smiled at his wife’s fiercely protective streak. “I will.”

“Firestorm to all Leaguers, we have a problem.”

Green Arrow’s voice crackled over the communicator – Ollie still hadn’t had his old League communicator upgraded to the earpiece. “What’s the prob, Ron?”

“Superman’s gone missing, guys.”

Batman’s voice cut through the sudden chatter as the Leaguers voiced their surprise and concerns. “This is the Batman. Wonder Woman?”

Donna Troy’s voice, higher in timbre than her predecessor’s, though just as strong and resolute of purpose, answered, “I’m here, Batman.”

“I’m tied up in Gotham at the moment. You’ll take point on the search for Superman?” Though he’d phrased it as a question, Ralph suppressed the urge to wince at the thought of Donna’s reaction to being told what to do. Though she, Dick, Raven and Wally had all ‘graduated’ from Titans to Leaguers, there was a tendency amongst the older Leaguers to treat them as the sidekicks they’d once been, much to their annoyance.

“Of course, Batman. I assume you’ll need the Bat-Family for your situation?”

“Yes.”

“Green Lantern, Flash, Atom, Zatanna, Martian Manhunter, Metamorpho, Aquaman, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Mister Miracle, Big Barda, Raven. Meet at the Satellite. Wonder Woman out.”

All our big guns, Ralph thought. Well, they’ll probably need it – anyone who could take out Big Blue was likely to be in a whole different weight class.

“While you’re on the line, Bats, Lady Justice is all clear,” Ralph said, but there was no reply.


End file.
